Ebony Green

Much has happened for Ebony Green and her daughter, Amaris Dobbins, since July, when the editorial board profiled the two as part of its series “American Dream Denied: Dallas’ Working Poor.” At the time, they were living in a one-bedroom apartment in East Dallas at the Interfaith Family Services of Dallas complex, where their rent was heavily subsidized. Green had moved in a hurry the previous February after coming to the realization that if she was ever going to get back on her feet she was going to need to make drastic changes.

She had lost her job the previous fall, and had been living with a sister and then an aunt since. As part of the program at the complex, she had to agree to find work and begin saving money for her eventual move-out. In July, she was working at $12 an hour full time, earning just about 150 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of two. Above, Amaris, 13, served the ball for the Lady Bucks of J.L. Long Middle School during a volleyball tournament at Sam Tasby Middle School in September.

As Green and her daughter began preparing for what had been scheduled to be a Nov. 1 move-out, one challenge they faced was finding a place Green could afford without subsidies but which would give her daughter access to the Richardson Independent School District schools. Before her move to Dallas, Amaris has developed a tight circle of middle-school friends and missed them desperately. Both she and her mother found the dress code at her new school, part of the baccalaureate program within DISD, stifling. “That’s how kids express themselves, through their clothes,” Green said in October. “And now that’s taken away from her.” Britney Kaiser (right), volleyball coach at J.L. Long Middle School, talked to Green and Amaris (left) during the September tournament.

In August, Green had decided to take a gamble on losing her job working in human resources in order to convince her bosses she was worth more than $12 an hour. She put in her two weeks’ notice and prepared to look for new work. But her boss wanted her to stay and upped her pay to $14 per hour. That income, which totals about $29,000 per year, is enough to move her and Amaris clearly out of the federal poverty threshold and within sight at least of the lower rungs of the middle class. In the photo above, Green (left) walked with Amaris at the volleyball tournament.

Green’s now nearly-$30,000 annual income was going to be stressed, however, as she began looking for an apartment in the fall. The complex where she was living agreed to let her stay through December in order to minimize disruption of Amaris’ school year. Here, Green peered out the window of an apartment in northeast Dallas that she and her daughter were considering in November.

Green figured she’d have to pay $1,200 or more per month for a place for her and her daughter to live. Above, Green and Amaris checked out the refrigerator/freezer of one of the places in northeast Dallas they were considering.

Happy as she was with her raise, the search for an apartment soon convinced Green that she must find a way to earn more money in order to reach the middle class. She said her goal is to move to a house or apartment where Amaris could have friends over and where they’d each have a room of their own. Here, Minh V. Hoang with Avignon Realty showed Green and Amaris the bathroom at the northeast Dallas apartment she visited in November.

The search for a new home was full of false starts. For Amaris, she feels her family’s poverty heavily. “There are kids in my school whose dads are lawyers,” she said. “They live in three-story houses and five bedrooms. They can't even imagine a one-bedroom home. They've never been in one.” Here, Green, left, and Amaris visit with each other while waiting to look at the apartment in northeast Dallas.

Green said her focus on her daughter, and on finding work this past year, hasn't meant she's given up on a more fulfilling life — or at least one with richer opportunities — for herself. But whatever shape that takes in the future, it's going to require more income, she said. "I'd like to be married someday. But if I can't provide for myself and for my daughter first, then I'm not ready." By December, her hunt for a new home had narrowed. As she prepared to move in to a new place in early December, she was delighted. "Amaris is so excited to be going back to her school district. Richardson ISD is ONE of the BEST school districts in Texas. We love RISD!" she said Dec. 8. "I'm so uplifted. I feel awesome!"

Kiala Proctor

It’s hard to say that Kiala Proctor, 25, and her family’s path out of poverty got any clearer since they were profiled by The Dallas Morning News in July. But her situation did get more stable — and it happened almost immediately after the series was published. In this portrait, Proctor and her boyfriend Matthew Palomo posed with their son, Matthew Palomo II, 7 (left), and daughter, Naomi Palomo, 8, in June.

Proctor and her children continue to live in South Dallas in an apartment she secured after spending six years on the waiting list for federal housing assistance. Matthew Palomo, her boyfriend and the children's father, lives there full time now, too. Here, Proctor ironed her pants before leaving for work on Sept. 20.

Proctor helps Matthew II with his shoes one morning before school. Proctor works full time at the Hilton Anatole as a dishwasher and makes about $20,000 per year. That puts her under the poverty line for her and her children. Palomo works as a food runner at a restaurant in Oak Lawn.

Over the summer, Proctor and Palomo were worried that one or both of them could lose their jobs if they had to keep calling in absent when childcare plans fell through, as they did from time to time. Both worked second shift, so when plans to have the kids’ grandmother or a babysitter watch the kids in the evening collapsed, one of them would have to stay home with the kids. Here, Proctor (left) watched as Matthew II and Naomi looked through their lunchboxes while getting ready for school.

When they were profiled in The News in July, Proctor was called in to the office at the Hilton. “I thought I was in trouble,” she recalled. But her bosses told her that they hadn’t realized how much stress her assignment on the second shift had been putting on her family. They promised to move her to daytime work by the time school started in the fall — a promise they kept. Here, Palomo helped Matthew II get ready for school as Mom helped Naomi do the same.

In this photo, Palomo gave Matthew II a kiss on the forehead as the kids set off for Mount Auburn Elementary School one morning.

Proctor says they are able to save a little now that they’ve been working nearly a full year since moving into the subsidized housing. She wants to go back to school and earn a community college degree. She knows that by itself, working as a dishwasher isn’t going to move her or her family out of poverty.

Naomi plays with one of Matthew II's braids on their way to school.

The benefits of steady work and less stress over child care show. Proctor said she’s got more energy and more optimism.